The news came out a day after Obama talked to British BP David
Cameron about BP, but also amid growing British skittishness
about participation in the Afghan war.

As
Foreign Policy recently noted, a growing strain of thought in
the UK is: We're helping you fight your war in Afghanistan
while you bankrupt our biggest dividend payer.

So perhaps one way to think about the Afghanistan news is that
it's designed to give David Cameron cover to continue to
fighting. Sure our legal and political system may end up
bankrupting BP, but if the UK leaves now, then it could miss out
on the BP of the future. Do you still want to pull out?